My question is for the Minister of Finance.
There have been many backroom and many front-room discussions in the week since the Minister announced the government’s new fiscal strategy. They’ve been held by Members of this House, members of the public service, members of service organizations, members of the general public and members of the media. We all have an opinion on the announcement. Some are approving and some are not. Unfortunately, many opinions are based on hearsay and minimal information.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance about the proposed $135 million budget reduction. Is that over a two-year period, and is there a second element in the fiscal strategy to reinvest some of the money found in the budget reduction?
I thank Ms. Bisaro for that question. The fact is that it is targeted for a two-year time frame. There is a portion of it that we are looking to reinvest back into those priorities we set as the 15th Legislative Assembly. As we’ve found out, I guess one could say, from past practice, even though we may target for a two-year window, some of the actual results may not prove themselves up for even the time beyond that. But the target is that we have a two-year window to operate in to try to find enough savings as well as the reinvestment portion.
Thank you for that clarification, Mr. Minister.
Can the Minister provide an overview of the reinvestment segment of this fiscal strategy? How and when will the money be put back in?
Mr. Speaker, earlier today, in my sessional statement, I highlighted the number of areas that we are going to use as strategic initiatives that align themselves with the goals of this Assembly. As we find the revenues to reinvest, that would be combined through reducing overall expenditures of government — identifying dollars within departments that could be reinvested — our goal was to try to invest, starting this year, and building up over the life of this Assembly.
I’ll have to put a caveat on that. Depending on the choices we make and the quality or quantity of the overall number that we do get in our first year of reductions, that will give us the amount we can look at reinvesting. So if we find less in the first year, there’ll be less for reinvestment.
Thank you for that, Minister.
With the implementation of that fiscal strategy, I am wondering if the Minister can advise whether or not there will be a reduction in the number of public service employees.
Mr. Speaker, our goal in this area is to look at how we spend our dollars on programs, the value for the investments we are making and the results we are actually producing. We have to look at that type of investment.
When you look at the total overall number and our compensation benefits package and the people we have working for us, it looks to be almost half the overall budget that we have in the Northwest Territories. There will be some impact.
Our work is not to target a number of people; our work is focused on programs. As we make decisions on how we proceed, we will be working through the channels to inform all those affected, in a timely manner, so they have a lot of time to look at what options may be available to them.
